Being Baby or Moving On?

We are growing in the Lord. Many of us should be past milk, past bottles, past pacifiers. I have a three-year-old son who should be past those things. But from time to time, he asks for a bottle of milk; he finds a pacifier and sucks on it. It's comfort. It's what he had known to comfort him until he became a big boy. He has to find the big-boy comforts now. It's like Israel wanting to go back to Egypt because it was familiar and promised momentary satisfaction and physical comforts that paled in comparison to the promised comforts God was leading them toward. My son doesn't want the pacifier when I remind him that he is a big boy, that he is no longer a baby. So much is about mentality. The stresses and trials of life tempt us to reach for that which is easy comfort. But those comforts take us back to Egypt. Those comforts bring us back to infancy. Both the trials and the fleshly comforts are like thorns that threaten to choke our faith in God--unless who we are, and in whom we're rooted chokes them first. Psalm 1:1-3: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."

Mark 4:7-8: "Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."

Our gracious Father knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14) He will be gentle with us if we are listening to His reminders: "You are my Bride now, not the groveling slave of Satan. You are royalty, not the no-good trash that the devil wants you to think you are. You are favored by me, the almighty, omnipotent God--not by presidents, not by kings, not even by company CEOs. No, you are favored by me, the King of kings and Lord of lords. I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I set up kings and depose them. I give CEOs power and take them away. And I have called you to be my Bride. Remember who you are." Why are we given such a marvelous place in the Kingdom of Heaven? Because the Father gave us to His Son, and the Son sealed the betrothal by paying the bride price with His own blood. And then He stamped His seal on us by the Holy Spirit. It's legal. It's real. It's done. So next time you want comfort, go tell your Bridegroom. He will faithfully wrap His arms around you and give you the kind of comfort that no pacifier could ever give. What are your pacifiers? Find them and take them to the Bridegroom so he can get rid of them forever.  Hebrews 5:12-14: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."  1 Corinthians 3:1-3: "But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?" Psalm 55:22: "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved."

There is one other object lesson the Lord has been showing me this week. My son has been making a habit of falling down and skinning his knees. Am I angry with him when he does that? Do I tell him to stop running or walking? Certainly not! I bandage his knees and send him back out to play. I encourage him to keep walking and running, while warning him to be careful. The Lord has reminded me that He treats His children in the same manner. "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever" (1 Chronicles 17:13-14). "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:14-16). "Did God's people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not!" (Romans 11:11).

2 Peter 3:18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Matthew 7:11: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"